Figure 1.--American Cubs, like Scouts, wore knickers during the 1930s, but the uniform was canged to short or long pants in the 1940s. Even so we still see knickers in the late 1940s. This was 12-year old Denny in 1947.

Knickers were very widely worn by American boys in the 1910s and 20s. In 1930 when Cubbing was founded, knickers were still very common, but during the 1930s declined in popularity. By the 1940s knickers were rapidly going out of style, especially after the early-40s. We still see boys wearing knickers in the early-40s and very few boys substituted other blue pants as would become common un the 1950s. The BSA responding to this shift changed the Cub uniform which had knicker pants. Following the Boy Scouts, the Cub knickers were dropped in the 1940s. Cubs were given the choice of wearing long or short pants. The rest of the uniform remained unchanges. Just the pants were changed. The kneesocks with two yellow bands that had been wore with knickers were retained to be worn with the short pants uniform. Most Cubs wore long pants. Some Cubs wore the short pants uniform, but in general the short pants prioved not very popular with the Cubs. And unlike the Scouts, Cubs did not attend summer camops where the short pants uniform was commonly required. And just because the uniform was changed, boys did not all suddently stop wearing the knickers. While they did rapidly become less common, we see a few boys wearing them into the late-1940s.